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1910 


HYMNS 


"ngv 


/ 


XV 


;\ 


Hymns  in  general  enjoy  a  certain  amount  of  vague  popularity  of 
which  the  hymn  in  particular  is  usually  quite  unworthy.  Some 
hymns  are  endeared  to  us  by  association  wTith  the  past.  The 
great  Advent  hymn,  for  instance,  entered  early  into  the  lives 
of  most  of  us,  and  is  still  treasured  in  the  hearts  of  thousands. 
Others  are  cherished  for  their  connexion  with  some  joy  or  sorrow 
of  the  individual  life.  Others,  again,  owe  their  popularity  to 
their  tunes.  Finally,  some  rightly  deserve  our  ungrudging 
admiration.  The  bulk  of  the  crowd  live  largely  on  the  credit  of 
these  favoured  few,  and  make  rather  a  sorry  show  on  their  own 
merits.  I  refer  throughout  to  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern,  as 
being  the  collection  of  hymns  most  familiar  to  the  public. 

'  Our  modern  hymnals  have  long  been  a  standing  proof  of  the 
difficulty  of  writing  good  hymns.'  Thus  speaks  The  Dictionary 
of  Theology,  and  to  this  professional  opinion  the  layman  must 
give  a  melancholy  assent.  With  everything  in  its  favour — time, 
place,  surroundings — the  ordinary  hymn  leaves  the  ordinary 
person  cold.  Speaking  broadly,  and  subject  to  all  just  excep- 
tions, it  is  destitute  of  anything  which  can  kindle  his  interest  or 
touch  his  heart.  Its  language  is  conventional,  its  sentiment  un- 
real, its  metaphors  outworn  and  often  misleading.  There  was  a 
time  when  religious  thought  was  inclined  to  see  in  the  wanderings 
of  the  Israelites  and  their  final  attainment  of  the  promised  land  the 
highest  symbol  of  the  Christian's  life-struggle  and  his  final  triumph. 
Modern  thought  has  passed  beyond  that  stage,  but  the  conventional 
hymn  remains  there.  It  cannot  shake  free  of  '  Canaan's  happy 
shore,'  '  Kedar's  tents/  'Jordan's  stream,'  'Egypt,  Edom, 
Babylon,'  and  so  forth.  To  the  Jews  of  old  all  these  were  living 
realities  in  the  story  of  their  race,  but  to  the  Englishman  of 
to-day,  even  as  metaphors,  they  are  flat,  stale,  and  unprofit- 
able. A  similar  unreality  appears  in  the  treatment  of  religious 
sentiment.  We  look  for  the  genuine  outpouring  of  devotion, 
only  to  find  too  often  in  its  place  a  meaningless  gush  of  pious 
expressions.  The  hymn  sometimes  becomes  a  sanctuary  for  debased 
ideals  which  cannot  live  in  the  wholesome  breezes  of  honest  exist- 
ence. The  dignity  of  human  life,  the  sanctity  of  its  purpose,  the 
use  and  abuse  of  its  joys  and  sorrows,  the  moral  value  and  signifi- 


1092  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  June 

cance  of  its  struggles,  its  triumphs,  its  defeats — all  these  are  fre- 
quently ignored,  or  even  denied.  Man  is  presented  rather  as  a 
1  worm  of  earth,'  too  vile  to  deserve  anything  but  that  '  uttermost 
damnation  '  which  seems  to  the  hymn  writer  the  natural  destiny 
of  a  being  whose  place  in  the  scheme  of  things  is  a  '  little  lower 
than  the  angels.'  Faith  in  the  divine  assistance  of  human 
struggles,  the  divine  co-operation  with  human  endeavour,  is  an 
essential  element  of  any  real  religion.  It  finds  various  expres- 
sions, but,  in  one  form  or  another,  it  is  always  there,  and  its 
presence  strengthens  into  achievement  many  an  effort  which 
would  otherwise  break  down.  The  tendency  of  the  hymn  writer 
(with  some  exceptions)  is  to  distort  this  conception  by  ascribing 
all  value  to  the  divine  energy,  and  reducing  the  human  effort  to 
worthlessness.  Man,  on  this  view,  is  not  only  devoid  of  any  merit, 
but  is  utterly  incapable  of  acquiring  it ;  a  doctrine  which  would 
paralyse  human  endeavour  and  pauperise  the  moral  sense.  Indeed, 
the  regenerate  man  of  the  hymn  is  apt  to  be  a  more  distasteful 
figure  than  the  open  sinner.  He  has  lost  all  his  interest  in  the 
things  of  this  life.  These  at  their  best  are  hollow,  at  their  worst 
are  sinful.  His  one  absorbing  anxiety  is  to  save,  as  Charles 
Kingsley,  I  think,  has  put  it,  his  '  dirty  little  soul  '  ;  and,  under 
this  strain  all  his  generous  instincts  have  been  stifled.  He  per- 
petually sighs  for  death,  and  whimpers  to  be  relieved  from  life's 
burdens.  Such  persons  may  exist,  but  they  form  morbid  excep- 
tions to  honest  Nature's  rule.  The  ordinary  man  does  not  yearn 
to  die ;  nor  does  he 

Linger  shivering  on  the  brink, 
And  fear  to  launch  away. 

When  death  comes  he  will  face  it.  Meanwhile  the  path  of  life  is 
before  him,  and  he  treads  it  as  best  he  may.  Its  obstacles  and 
dangers  are  his  opportunities.  He  may  stumble,  but  he  will 
struggle  on.  He  knows  himself  to  be  imperfect,  but  he  certainly 
does  not  believe  himself  to  be  vile.  If  he  were  bound  to  make 
the  choice,  he  would  assuredly  prefer  Cecil  Khodes  to  St.  Simeon 
Stylites.  He  has  little  sympathy  with  the  selfishness  which 
renounces  the  responsibilities  of  life,  or  the  cowardice  which 
collapses  in  despair  of  it ;  and,  if  he  sought  for  an  ideal,  he  would 
find  it  rather  in 

One  who  never  turned  his  back,  but  marched  breast  forward  ; 

Never  doubted  clouds  would  break  ; 
Never  dreamed,  though  right  were  worsted,  wrong  would  triumph  ; 

Held,  we  fall  to  rise,  are  baffled  to  fight  better,  sleep  to  wake. 

It  is  obvious,  moreover,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  we  do  not 
indulge  in  the  emotions  described  by  the  hymnal.     We  do  not 


1910  HYMNS  1093 

share  its  hysterical  raptures  or  abandon  ourselves  to  its  equally 
hysterical  abasement.  They  may  appeal  to  warmer  tempera- 
ments, but  the  Englishman  is  simply  not  built  that  way.  His 
attitude  in  the  matter  is  not  the  least  lacking  in  reverence.  He 
does  not  think  lightly  of  prayer  and  praise.  But  somehow  the 
maxim  '  Labor  are  est  or  are  '  rings  truer  to  his  ear.1  He  is  ready 
enough  to  recognise  his  own  shortcomings  and  the  duty  of  striving 
to  rise  to  better  things.  But  no  sense  of  unworthiness  will  drive 
him  into  the  welter  of  penitence  in  which  some  hymns  seem  to 
revel.  He  will  not  '  beat  the  breast  '  or  '  in  ashes  mourn,'  or  in 
any  other  way  permit  honest  repentance  to  degenerate  into  abject 
humiliation.  Professor  James  happily  indicates  in  a  few  lines 
what  seems  to  me  to  be  the  religious  temper  of  the  Anglo-Saxon. 
He  writes  (Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  p.  38)  : 

Religion,  if  hostile  to  light  irony,  is  equally  hostile  to  heavy  grumbling 
and  complaint.  .  .  .  There  must  be  something  solemn,  serious,  and  tender 
about  any  attitude  which  we  denominate  religious.  If  glad,  it  must  not 
grin  or  snicker ;  if  sad,  it  must  not  scream  or  curse. 

To  this  temper  the  exaggerations  of  the  hymn  are,  like  all 
extravagances,  necessarily  distasteful. 

In  other  ways  also  the  hymn  writer  is  often  rather  tactless. 
He  has  a  perverse  knack  of  getting  hold  of  unsuitable  objects 
or  of  treating  suitable  subjects  in  an  unsuitable  way.  The 
eschatology  of  some  hymns  recalls  the  savage  gloating  of 
Tertullian  over  the  tortures  of  the  damned.  In  others,  the  simple 
note  of  praise  or  devotion  is  smothered  under  a  mass  of  theology. 
Metaphorical  representations  of  the  Church  and  its  members  are 
pushed  to  extravagant  lengths,  and  the  language  and  imagery  of 
the  Apocalypse  are  introduced  with  a  very  free  and  not  too 
judicious  hand. 

And  thus  at  many  points  the  hymns  do  violence  to  our  better 
instincts.  They  clash  with  our  hopes  and  aspirations  for  the 
hereafter  and  with  our  ideas  of  the  relations  between  the  human 
and  divine.  The  sensuous  splendour  of  gold  and  jewel  which 
might  touch  an  Eastern  fancy  is  out  of  place  for  us.  In  its  time 
it  may  have  served  a  purpose,  but  that  time  is  past. 

With  jasper  glow  thy  bulwarks, 

Thy  streets  with  emeralds  blaze  ; 
The  sardius  and  the  topaz 

Unite  in  thee  their  rays  ; 
Thine  ageless  walls  are  bonded 

With  amethyst  unpriced. 

Material  glories  of  this  kind  do  not  enter  into  our  dreams  of  the 
abiding  city  which  awaits  us.     The  alternative  vision  of  green 

1  This  maxim  is  admirably  expressed  in  Hymn  475. 


1094  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  June 

pastures  and  water  springs,  oil  and  wine,  milk  and  honey,  is 
equally  material  and  equally  unsatisfying,  and  is  founded  only  on 
a  perversion  of  Old  Testament  ideas.  Even  if  this  were  not  so, 
the  agricultural  prosperity  which  the  Israelite  prized  for  his 
earthly  life  some  3000  years  ago  obviously  cannot  satisfy  the  hopes 
of  the  Englishman  for  his  eternal  hereafter.  Nor  are  the  con- 
ditions of  the  future  existence  proposed  to  us  in  the  hymn  more 
attractive  than  its  surroundings.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say 
that  in  some  respects  they  are  such  as  no  self-respecting  being 
would  submit  to,  and  no  Deity  whom  we  could  venerate  would 
require.  Surely  the  future  must  be  regarded  as  being  linked, 
through  the  present,  with  the  past,  all  three  forming  parts  of  one 
continuous  scheme.  x\nd  if  this  be  so,  the  character  of  each  stage 
of  our  future  existence  must  be  such  as  will  permit  of  the  due 
development  of  the  faculties  brought  over  from  the  stage 
preceding  it.  It  cannot  be  seriously  supposed  that  a  man's  nature 
is  radically  transformed  by  the  mere  fact  of  physical  death  :  yet 
nothing  short  of  this  will  justify  some  of  the  eschatologies  of  the 
hymnal.  One  would  need,  for  instance,  to  be  radically  trans- 
formed before  such  a  future  as  that  depicted  in  Hymn  230  could 
seem  reasonably  desirable.  All  that  is  best  in  us  aspires  to  a 
hereafter  of  growth  :  the  hymnal  offers  us  only  a  hereafter  of 
stagnation. 

As  to  the  literary  merit  of  the  hymns  we  ought  not,  perhaps, 
to  be  too  exacting  :  yet  it  is  a  little  strange  that  we  are  content 
to  employ  for  divine  service  verses  which  would  not  be  admitted 
to  a  third-rate  magazine.  We  could  not  expect  every  hymn  to  be 
a  great  poem,  but  we  might  reasonably  look  for  a  much  greater 
measure  of  literary  earnestness  and  taste  in  the  hymn  writer. 
The  slipshod  style  in  which  words  are  strung  together,  with  more 
regard  to  their  sound  than  to  their  sense,  the  hackneyed  termin- 
ology, the  confusion  of  metaphor,  the  jumble  of  the  material  and 
spiritual  which  makes  one  wince,  and  the  washy  sentiment  and 
bemuddled  thought  of  so  many  of  the  hymns,  are  all  faults  which 
could  be  rectified.  To  take  a  single  example,  a  little  ordinary 
care  would  surely  have  excluded  from  Hymn  213  such  lines  as 
these  : 

This  stream  doth  water  Paradise, 
It  makes  the  Angels  sing  ; 


or 


Faith  sees  and  hears  :  but  O  for  wings, 
That  we  might  taste  and  feel ! 


Sometimes,  indeed,  it  is  only  possible  to  avoid  an  overwhelming 
sense  of  the  grotesque  by  steadily  ignoring  the  natural  meaning  of 


1910  HYMNS  1095 

the  words.  Take,  for  instance,  Hymn  405. 2  Here  we  have  first 
the  picture  of  a  smitten  shepherd  and  a  flock  threatened  by  a 
1  ravening  wolf.'  We  next  learn  that  the  wolf  is  anxious  to  bind 
and  crucify  the  sheep ;  but  this  design  is  counteracted  by  the  con- 
version of  the  wolf,  who  turns  out  to  be  St.  Paul,  and  forthwith 
becomes  a  '  gentle  lamb  ' — hardly  a  felicitous  description, 
perhaps,  of  the  great  Apostle.  A  hugger-mugger  like  this  cannot 
claim  respect,  let  alone  reverence,  and  is  more  likely  to  provoke 
ridicule.  Indeed,  from  these  causes  hymns  are,  in  point  of  fact, 
beginning  to  fall  into  contempt.  This  is  a  feeling  from  which 
any  form  of  worship  should  be  zealously  protected.  Mere 
hostility  is  not  nearly  so  dangerous  ;  for  opposition  will  often 
quicken  vitality,  and  an  honest  antagonist  can  respect  what  he 
opposes.  A  creed  or  liturgy  may  successfully  resist  the  open 
attacks  of  its  enemies,  but  it  must  ultimately  wither  under  the 
secret  contempt  of  its  friends.  Now,  it  is  worth  an  effort  to  save 
our  hymns  from  this  fate,  and  for  more  reasons  than  one.  The 
musical  services  of  modern  times  have  encroached  to  some  extent 
on  congregational  singing.  We  have  the  Psalms  left,  of  course, 
and  on  the  Psalms  no  one  can  wish  to  lay  a  sacrilegious  finger. 
But,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  some  of  the  Psalms  are  neces- 
sarily inapplicable  to  the  facts  and  feelings  of  the  present  day. 
Here,  then,  is  a  gap  which  the  hymn  might  fill.  But  to  do  so  it 
must  be  attuned  to  modern  ideas ;  the  thought  which  inspires  it 
must  be  true  to  religion  without  being  false  to  fact ;  and  its 
1  Sursum  corda  '  must  cover  no  appeal  to  which  our  better  instincts 
would  answer  '  Vade  retro  Sathanas.'  The  musical  service,  more- 
over, tends  to  make  us  forget  one  great  possibility  of  congrega- 
tional singing.  TEe  emotion  of  a  crowd  is  admittedly  something 
more  than  the  total  isolated  emotions  of  the  individuals  who 
compose  it.  The  psychology  of  the  subject  is  rather  obscure,  but 
the  fact  seems  clear,  and  it  gives  to  united  song  a  psychical  power, 
an  emotional  magic  of  its  own.  Most  of  us,  at  some  time  or 
other,  in  theatre,  cathedral,  or  procession,  have  bent  to  the  sway 
of  this  strange  influence,  which  touches  the  heart,  fires  enthu- 
siasm, or  deepens  resolve,  playing  in  subtle  fashion  on  the  hidden 
deeps  of  our  nature.  And  the  hymn  may  claim  its  share  in  this 
if  only  it  will  learn  to  deserve  it,  if  only  the  aim  of  all  concerned 
should  be  to  set  '  perfect  music  unto  noble  words.'  And  here  let 
me  touch  for  one  moment  on  the  music.  I  have  said  that  some 
hymns  owe  their  popularity  to  their  tunes.  There  are,  on  the 
other  hand,  some  tunes  which  would  paralyse  any  hymn.  Like  a 
certain  production  already  celebrated  in  verse,  they  '  distinctly 

3  This,  which  is  a  translation  of  an  old  Latin  hymn  (Pastor e  percusso,  minas), 
has,  I  believe,  been  omitted  from  the  latest  edition  of  Hymns  Ancient  and 
Modern. 


1096  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  June 

resemble  an  air,'  but  hardly  more.  They  suggest  the  struggles  of 
a  composer  who  piles  up  eccentricities  to  conceal  his  lack  of  power, 
and  they  demand  a  vocal  agility  which  can  hardly  be  expected  in 
the  multitude. 

As  for  the  hymns  themselves,  surely  the  time  has  come  for  a 
sensible  revision  by  some  authority  which  would  command  the 
respect  even  of  those  who  might  dissent  from  its  conclusions.  It 
should  be  broadly  representative  in  composition,  so  as  to  give 
expression  not  only  to  clerical  opinion  on  the  subject,  but  to  lay 
sentiment  and  literary  judgment  also.  The  revision  would 
necessarily  be  drastic,  but  it  should  proceed  tenderly,  so  that 
nothing  genuinely  dear  to  the  people  should  be  sacrificed,  whatever 
its  demerits  may  be.  For  the  hymn-book  of  a  national  Church  must 
appeal  to  the  nation  at  large ,  not  merely  to  select  portions  of  it .  The 
conceptions  in  which  the  thought  of  the  cultivated  man  takes  form, 
the  ideals  to  which  he  aspires,  would  be  too  complex  for  the  grasp  of 
a  lowlier  mind.  More  than  this,  they  would  be  without  warmth  or 
colour  to  the  humble  folk,  whose  lives  are  often  sadly  lacking  in 
either,  and  to  whom  a  dream  of  some  happy  nook  in  the  Delect- 
able Mountains  is  fairer  than  any  brilliant  vision  of  spiritual 
advance.  Subject  to  these  reservations,  I  would  say  :  discard  all 
that  is  unreal,  all  that  is  out  of  touch  with  what  religion  means 
for  us  to-day.  Discard  the  conventional  hysterics  of  penitence, 
the  exaggerated  bewailings  of  human  worthlessness,  and  the 
abject  depreciation  of  divine  vengeance.  Discard  sham  raptures, 
which  repel  the  reason  and  often  shock  the  moral  sense.  Let  theo- 
logical speculation  be  left  severely  alone,  and  theological  dogma 
touched  with  a  very  light  hand .  We  may  go  further  yet .  There  are 
certain  doctrines  which  are  accepted  with  reluctance  by  some  and 
are  openly  disputed  by  others.  Let  us  keep  these  troublous 
matters  out  of  hymns  altogether,  and  leave  them  to  be  dealt 
with,  if  necessary,  from  the  pulpit.  And  so  may  our  hymns  be 
made  fit  once  more  to  fill  a  worthy  place  in  the  great  liturgy  to 
which  they  belong. 

After  the  revision  we  should,  of  course,  have  to  fill  the  places 
of  the  hymns  which  had  been  discarded  ;  and  contemporary  talent 
would  probably  be  equal  to  the  task.  To  sit  down  in  cold  blood 
to  write  a  hymn  may  seem  rather  a  forlorn  undertaking,  and  it 
must  be  admitted  that  at  present  there  is  no  very  spirited  demand 
for  this  class  of  literature.  But  the  mere  fact  of  the  revision 
would  give  the  needful  encouragement ;  and  even  without  this 
impulse  the  attempt  has  been  made  with  success,  notably,  for 
instance,  by  Newman.  Moreover,  if  further  material  be  needed, 
we  could  easily  borrow  or  adapt  from  the  secular  poets.  To  some 
extent  this  has  already  been  done,  but  the  selections  have  not 
always  been  too  fortunate.     We  owe  to  Cowper,  for  instance, 


1910  HYMNS  1097 

that  unpardonable  hymn  '  There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood.' 
This  is  one  of  the  Olney  Hymns,  and  throughout  all  these  the 
tread  of  his  Muse  is  inclined  to  be  heavy. 
For  example  : 

Friends  and  ministers  said  much 

The  Gospel  to  enforce  ; 
But  my  blindness  still  was  such, 

I  chose  a  legal  course. 

And  again  : 

Israel  in  ancient  days 

Not  only  had  a  view 
Of  Sinai  in  a  blaze, 

But  learned  the  Gospel  too.3 

Still,  we  may  be  disposed  to  deal  gently  with  the  author  of  '  God 
moves  in  a  mysterious  way.'  Tennyson  and  others  have  been  laid 
sparingly  under  contribution,  but  we  might  draw  more  boldly 
from  such  sources  with  advantage.  In  the  Positivist  Hymn-book 
Wordsworth,  Archbishop  Trench,  Charles  Kingsley,  Shelley, 
Longfellow,  Herbert,  Herrick,  Cardinal  Newman,  Clough,  Lord 
Houghton,  Morris,  and  Mrs.  Browning  all  find  place  ;  and  though, 
from  the  nature  of  the  case,  secular  poetry  enters  more  easily  into 
this  than  into  a  Church  hymnal,  we  have  hardly  made  the  most 
of  our  opportunities  in  this  direction.  For  in  many  of  the  secular 
poets  we  shall  find  man  and  man's  destiny  faithfully  dealt  with, 
and  touched  with  a  strong  and  skilful  hand.  Such  poems  may 
lack  the  conventional  religious  vesture  in  which  we  have  come  to 
think  that  all  hymns  should  be  clothed.  But  this  matters  little, 
so  long  as  the  poems  themselves  appeal  straight  and  true  to  the 
instincts  by  which  life  is  sanctified,  and  from  which  religion  itself 
draws  all  its  strength. 

Two  instances  must  suffice.  As  we  pass  from  childhood  to 
manhood,  and  thence  from  the  crowning  days  of  life's  complete- 
ness down  through  the  years  which  bring  us  to  life's  end,  most 
of  us  have  much  the  same  story  to  tell.  No  great  calamity  has 
darkened  our  path,  no  surpassing  happiness  has  flooded  it  with 
delight.  We  have  all  been  battered  by  more  or  less  the  same 
experiences,  and,  more  or  less,  we  have  each  of  us  learned  the 
lessons  which  they  teach.  If  we  look  back  with  some  faint  regret 
to  the  lost  days  of  our  youth,  we  have  no  real  desire  to  recall  them. 
Life  still  has  its  quiet  interests  for  us,  its  sober  pleasures;  but 
though  we  may  dread  the  wrench  of  parting,  we  shall  be  content, 

3  The  Miscellaneous  Poems  of  Georgina  Farrer,  quoted  by  Mr.  Eoss  in  his 
Masques  and  Phases,  show  what  atrocities  can  be  committed  in  the  name  of 
the  hymn. 


1098  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  June 

when  the  time  comes,  to  depart.     And  the  manner  of  our  going, 
could  we  choose  it  ? — 

Sunset,  and  evening  star, 
And  one  clear  call  for  me 


Surely  any  hymnal   would  be  richer  by  the  inclusion   of  this 
exquisite  poem.4 

Again,  the  religious  imagination  is  readily  stirred  by  the  con- 
templation of  Nature's  stupendous  forces,  whose  revel,  as  it 
believes,  is  yet  controlled  by  the  divine  hand.  The  Psalms  are 
full  of  this  feeling,  which  also  inspires  some  of  the  best  hymns. 
And  among  these  might  not  a  place  be  found  for  Swinburne's 
splendid  lines  to  the  storm -blast  from  the  north? — 

0  stout  North-easter, 
Sea-King,  land-waster, 
For  all  thine  haste,  or 

Thy  stormy  skill, 
Yet  hadst  thou  never, 
For  all  endeavour, 
Strength  to  dissever 

Or  strength  to  spill, 
Save  of  His  giving 
Who  gave  our  living, 
Whose  hands  are  weaving 

What  ours  fulfil ; 
Whose  feet  tread  under 
The  storms  and  thunder  ; 
Who  made  our  wonder  to  work  His  will. 

His  years  and  hours, 
His  world's  blind  powers, 
His  stars  and  flowers, 

His  nights  and  days, 
Sea-tide  and  river, 
And  waves  that  shiver, 
Praise  God  the  giver 

Of  tongues  to  praise. 
Winds  in  their  blowing, 
And  fruits  in  growing  ; 
Time  in  its  going, 

While  Time  shall  be  ; 
In  death  and  living, 
With  one  thanksgiving, 
Praise  Him  whose  hand  is  the  strength  of  the  sea. 

Nokman  Pearson. 

4  It  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  included  in  the  Church  Hymns  of  the  S.P.C.K. 


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